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かさゝぎのわたせるはしにをくしものしろきを見ればよぞふけにける
| kasasagi no wataseru hashi ni oku shimo no shiroki o mireba yo zo fukenikeru |
On a magpie Crossed bridge Frost lies; Seeing the whiteness Night, indeed, is over. |
Middle Councillor [Ōtomo no] Yakamochi
大伴家持
This poem is also included as #6 in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshū compiled by Fujiwara no Teika.
I am trying to understand the correct way to parse ふけにける in the last line. Is ける an attributive form of けり? If so, what’s the に doing in there?
The ni に is the continuative form of the perfective affix marker nu ぬ, and indicates that the action of the verb is completed, or the state that it describes is in effect – in this case that night is in the condition of having come to an end. Keri 〜けり is in its attributive form keru 〜ける because of the earlier emphatic particle zo ぞ, which required sentences to end in the attributive form, through what is known as a kakarimusubi 係り結び (bound ending) relationship between a particle and sentence ending.